Public Post-it for library ideas

EVEN if the public’s ideas to save Ixworth library prove ordinary, the method for getting them was novel.

To avoid its public meeting getting bogged in debate, Ixworth Parish council ringed the village hall with tables labelled for different aspects of the village library’s future and asked people to stick ideas on Post-it notes.

Ixworth’s county councillor Joanna Spicer told the meeting: “This isn’t an opportunity to object to possible closure or say ‘we support our library’. We want your ideas of how we can keep this library going.”

She said the county had to save 30 per cent on library spending and that of Ixworth’s £56,915 running costs only £16,825 was for staffing and expenditure in the library itself, which is the second busiest small library in the county.